Without any doubt, 20-year-old Lakshya Sen, being personally groomed by legendary Prakash Padukone and former chief national coach Vimal Kumar at the fabled and much respected Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru since the age of about ten, is the most prolific badminton player emerging from India currently. He has already made a name for himself on the world circuit by defeating many top 20 ranked shuttlers had, achieving the 24th spot on the BWF world rankings.
As he now gets ready to play the European circuit of four continuous tournaments starting with the Dutch open, followed by the Danish, French and the Saarlorlux open in Germany, let us look at his background and see how committed and motivated he is to be a top ten player by next year.
Lakshya achieved world number 1 rank as a junior in 2016. And he showed his huge potential early on when he started the incredible winning spree at the junior National championships level .
He won the National junior under 19 title at age 15. Played senior National finals at age 17 in 2017. In 2015 Lakshya won the under 17 national title and in 2016 he again won the under 19 gold medal. In 2018/2019 he reached senior National finals but again had to settle for silver medal. He won gold at the 2018 Asian junior event, defeating the then junior World champion Vitidsaran of Thailand. So how did his journey start and how did he land up in the Padukone academy.
Lakshya’s grandfather used to play the game in Almora, Uttarakhand and father DK Sen became a badminton coach. Elder brother Chirag started playing at an early age and became a national ranker in under 13 age group. In that very strong badminton environment at home, it was inevitable that he dearly wanted to learn the game and emulate his brother. The grandfather used to take Lakshya with him when he went to play. Father DK Sen says,” he wanted to be coached like Chirag so seeing his seriousness I started teaching him. He is a strong boy, specially in his legs and he learnt fast.”
At a junior level tournament in Bengaluru in 2010, he was talent hunted by Prakash and Vimal. Chirag did very well in under 13, but somehow Vimal saw Lakshya on court playing a senior bigger boy and was impressed by his fighting spirit and attitude.
Chirag was selected to join the PPBA and Lakshya too wanted to stay and learn the game. Initially, Vimal felt Lakshya was a bit young but both he and Prakash relented seeing his determination and enthusiasm.
“Being born and living on hills the legs are strong and so is lung capacity. In training on track or on the court he can put in a lot of work without getting much tired. Almora is a real hill station,” analysed Vimal and also says that in 2011 itself Prakash saw the potential in Lakshya and felt that he should be supported by the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ). So the boy was sent to Indonesia, Singapore, Denmark and England. And these exposures at a young age helped Lakshya to mature early.
After a highly successful performance at juniors level, both domestically and internationally, Lakshya moved on to senior levels and soon started demolishing some big names. He has defeated top 20 rankers like HS Prannoy, Lee Zee of Malaysia, Jonathan Christie of Indonesia and many others. But he derived great satisfaction when he took a game off the legendary Chinese Lin Dan, arguably the best player the world has seen.
He matched the towering Chinese stroke for stroke and was not afraid to go in an all out attack. Some of the diving retrieves to tackle the scorchers from Lin Dan were outstanding. Lakshya was neither overawed by the name of the player opposite nor by the ambience. He is soft-spoken and very confident of his ability to tackle and blunt the attack of player facing him. In just his second year of playing the senior BWF circuit he has already zoomed to 24th world rank at age 20 and is looking forward to gatecrash into top 20 by year end. And mind you both years in the circuit have been marred by worldwide spread of Covit 19. Many tournaments have been scrapped otherwise Lakshya would surely have been a top 20 player already.
At senior levels he has won the India International series, won the Scottish and Dutch open titles and snatched the Saarlorlux open gold in Germany and made it to the quarterfinals of the All England Championships in 2021. He also got a silver at youth Olympic games in 2018.
So what are his strengths and weakness. He is a real hard worker. Coach Vimal says Lakshya is a glutton for hard work.” Whatever drills or training or stroke practice you assign to him he will finish.
Doesn’t matter how tired he is, and always looks for more. He has developed a good hard smash and controlled net game. The sideway movements are fast and so is his foray to the net after a smash.”
But he has this propensity to attack even from the baseline and at times he is not able to recover. He constantly wants to smash rather then first construct a rally patiently and then go into attack.
Playing at higher level he has to learn to be patient, build up a rally get his opening and then unleash with full power and timing. Players in top 20 have good defence so one has to first move them away from centre and then hit.
He has now no weakness as such in his game but experience will make his game sharper and more precise.
And Lakshya has been doing just that lately as he builds up for the forthcoming European circuit. He has had a great practice and training session with current world and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in Dubai for 15 days.
“I was very lucky that Viktor agreed to practice with me. He really pushed me to my limits. We worked on court drills, stroke practices and games. I have definitely become a bit faster and hopefully more controlled. I also learnt from Viktor the importance of stroke selection. So I am ready to start these tournaments and I am sure that I will do well.” Lakshya told me over the phone after his return to India from Dubai.
He has the game, the right temperament, strength, speed and stamina and skill to be amongst the best India has produced. He is surely on the road to emulate Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand. And who knows, well there are indications, he may even go better.
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